Method Acting
by Phantom Shyraz
Summary: Kaito passing on his knowledge and skills to a group of hopeful (?) youngsters as part of his penance, and managed to bring back a rather fond memory in the process. -ONE SHOT-


**-Method Acting-**

Disclaimer: The works of Detective Conan and Magic Kaito belongs to Gosho Aoyama-sensei.

A/N: This came out of a prompt from Poirot Cafe, didn't have the time to post it before so here it is. Prompt: Soap

* * *

From the corridors, Kaito could hear swearing from the classroom. There were many loud voices, some complaining why they were here, others commenting on how horrid their last teacher was. There were a few stating they only came because they were forced, who then proceeded to disrespectfully mention their parents. Kaito quirked an eyebrow that no one could see and wondered if, by the end of the lesson, anyone else would speak in such a manner.

Dramatically, Kaito slide open the door, revealing a room full of children and teens. Kaito had to wonder what sorts of impression the teens were making on their younger peers, with their rude way of speech. There were many scowls on the faces, which then morphed to various stages of shock and surprise. He surveyed his class, filled with hopeful eyes and expectant faces now that his students recognised his face. Not that he was too surprised, having an up-and-coming magician come into a community class to do a course on acting must be exciting for them.

"Alright Class, settle down." Kaito tries to call for some sort of order within the midst of whispers. Excited children and teens turned their sparkling eyes towards Kaito. "Ok, today I'm going to teach you about acting."

"Can we get an autograph?"

"Are you still single?"

"What's your type?"

A deluge of questions came at a staggering pace, mostly invasive though some were mere inquisitive, amongst the giggles and chatter.

"Hey, hey. Settle down. Settle down." Kaito had to question his own sanity again on why he chose to submit (and subject) himself to such classes (he also taught an evening adult class and those were...well...let's just say they put Kaito into a female perspective more often than he would have liked). Then he remembered this was his own personal penance on all the crimes he committed as KID. Even though KID had never been caught, now at age 25 KID has retired after having found his target and Kaito was able to pursue his professional career.

Thankfully, his students finally settled down to a mellow chatter instead of the ear shattering conversations that seemed to echo within the classroom.

"Ok. Today we'll be covering a particular style of acting. Would each of you come up here to the table and take a little piece of the chocolate on my desk."

Another murmur of chattering as the students looked at Kaito quizzically.

"Come now. I don't bite." Kaito joked, hoping to relieve some of the tension. "And I didn't poison the chocolate."

Actually, Kaito chose a rather nice brand of chocolate, a rather nostalgic brand for him at least. He was willing to spend some cash on making this lesson more enjoyable. At least more enjoyable compared to how he learnt his lesson.

Bravely, the girl closest to him walked the short distance and hesitant took a small silver square from his table. The rest of the students followed eagerly. Some even tore the silver wrapper almost immediately and began savouring the piece of milk chocolate. Kaito held back the smirk at the enthusiastic behaviour. They would be in for a surprise soon.

"Now that you have savoured the taste. Tell me about it." Kaito asked, taking a piece from his desk and popping it into his mouth, wrapper and all. Several seconds later, he pulled a carefully folded silver rose from his mouth and laid it back on the table. Several students' eyes turned into saucers, some applauded, but Kaito ignored these reactions in favour of prompting his students to answer.

Shouts then came from the students and Kaito dutifully wrote them onto the whiteboard behind him. They were all generic words that many associate with a taste of milk chocolate. The words 'Sweet', 'Nice', 'Sugary' were all things that Kaito predicted. Though there was one that picked up 'Fruity' which was slightly strange though not too unexpected.

"Right, now what do you feel when you were eating it? What sorts of memories did you remember?" Kaito prompted once more. This time, there were more structured thoughts as each student took the time to describe a memory. Some talked about their first birthday party, others were talking about Halloween. There was one that talked about a funeral strangely enough. Though Kaito could not really make the connection but it counts as a memory nonetheless.

"What about you Sensei? What do you remember?"

Kaito pondered a while before replying rather cryptically with a "I'll tell you once we finish this exercise if we have time to spare. I figure you lot might want a bit of recovery time after this." He rummaged around in his bag before producing a black nondescript box this time. He pushed his table and chair to the side to set a stage in the front of the class.

"Alright, remember those feelings." This time Kaito walked around the class, holding out the black box for the students to take a piece of the silver wrapped object. "Now don't unwrap it or taste the content yet. You'll be doing so in the front of the whole class. What you have wrapped in your hands is something edible, but not chocolate. I want you to eat it as though you were eating a piece of chocolate."

"How hard would it be?" A student jested from a row behind Kaito.

"Just for that young man, you'll have the privilege to go first." Kaito eyed the small silver packet. Although all of them looked somewhat the same to the untrained eye, the insides all tasted different. Kaito noted the rather hidden KID caricature on the silver wrapping and smirked. "If you feel it is so easy, get comfortable on the stage."

Kaito settled in the small corner of the room, eyes focused on the boy. Externally, Kaito looked cool and calm though internally, he was smirking. Even he had trouble the first time he attempted this same exercise. Though to be honest, he had it worst off than these students. He doubted using the same method as he had learnt the skill would work in modern day classrooms without serious repercussion. It was a good thing he learnt his skills from the comfort of their house.

"Go on then. Unwrap it and put it in your mouth. Trust me, it's edible."

The boy eyed the wrapped silver square in his palm skeptically before taking a rather large gulp of saliva. The boy probably knew it was a do-or-die moment and took the plunge, hastily ripping the silver foil and popping the full square of seemingly chocolate into his mouth. His face immediately turned to disgust as he tries to spit it out.

"Ah-ah. No spitting. Now, remember the feelings and tastes of the chocolate you had before and imitate that." Kaito magicked a roll of silver duct tape into existence, dramatically pulling the tape away from the roll. "You wouldn't want me to tape it shut now would you?" Kaito dared to let out a rather evil smirk as the boy sweated.

His _performance_ was not exactly great and when asking the rest of the students how he performed and whether they believed he was eating a piece of chocolate, most of them shook their heads. Kaito then called for volunteers and each of them were weary of their own little silver foil wrapped squares. Sighing, Kaito took out the box again and asked the student next to him to pull out one of the pieces.

"I'll demonstrate the correct way to do it." He asked another student to unwrap the foil for him, stating "just in case any of you think I've swapped it." He then asked a third to pick up the piece and he bent over to take it into his mouth and chipping off a majority of the dark brown piece of _thing_. It was something straight from his childhood, a nostalgic taste of the tasteless but the texture was oh-so-familiar. Yet, it was possibly the hardest thing to swallow out of the lot, not the worst tasting but the foulest texture available. He wondered whether it was fate or luck that had him pick this particular piece out of everything else. However, he was not deterred and he savoured the piece as though it was the tastiest chocolate in the world. To demonstrate that he had indeed finish the piece, he opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out for inspection. "There, that's how you do it. Now, who's next?" Kaito was glad that he had been able to swallow it instead of foaming at the mouth. He needed to go spend another ten minutes to rinse out the taste after class ends but it was well worth the lesson.

The student who held onto Kaito's piece of chocolate sniffed the small corner left in her hand. She the scrunched up her face and took a lick at the piece. Her classmates watched with rapt attention as the tongue inched closer to the brown surface. The moment the tongue licked the surface, she immediately released the piece and let it fall. She started spitting and spluttering before asking "are you even human Sensei? I can feel my tongue is….ack!"

Kaito laughed with the rest of the class.

"This exercise is trying to teach you Stanislavski's Method Acting technique. It might be a bit untraditional but I thought you all could use the excitement."

The rest of the afternoon passed with much more sputtering and giggles as some students failed miserably while others seemed relieved that the ordeal is over. Strangely enough, many of which decided to stay until the end of the class instead of running to the bathroom at the first possible moment. Kaito briefly wondered how many students would come back for the next lesson when one brave soul raised their hand. Gesturing for the brave soul to ask the question, Kaito was not surprised when ask to answer the previous question of what memory stood out when he was eating the chocolate.

Glancing over at the intricately folded silver rose, Kaito's mind went down memory lane.

"' _Tou-san." The six years old Kaito whined. It was three in the afternoon and his favourite show was about to come on any minute. Yet his father pulled him away from the TV with the promise of showing him the tricks of the trade. His father led him into the study, far away from any source of possible distraction. Kaito had the urge to ignore his father's promise but then it had been so long since his father last showed him a trick._

" _Come now Kaito. This is something useful for a magician." His father handed him a piece of silver wrapped chocolate from a large box. It was one of Kaito's favourite kinds. "Here."_

 _Kaito loved the sweet sugary taste with a hint of bitter from these chocolates. They were ones that his father's friends sent from Hawaii and had nuts inside the chocolate making it crunchy. Chewing on the small piece of chocolate, Kaito decided to forgive his father._

" _And? Are you going to show me a trick then?" He asked expectantly, sitting on the beanbag by the corner of the room._

" _In a while. But first, your lesson." His father opened the first drawer of his desk and took out a small white box. "Now, remember the taste, the feeling, and everything associated with the piece of chocolate ok?" Kaito nodded, trying to commit to memory of how the chocolate felt inside his mouth. "Now close your eyes and open your mouth."_

 _Kaito did as his father asked._

" _This is a piece of chocolate." He said as he placed the hard piece on his tongue and immediately Kaito knew it was anything_ _but_ _chocolate. He had the immediate urge to throw up, or gag, as his father pushed his mouth shut. Kaito opened his eyes and frantically tries to fight off his father. It took a short second for his father to release him._

" _ACK! 'Tou-san! WHY?!" Kaito rushed out the room, mouth foaming slightly from ingesting that..._ _thing_ _. He tries to rinse the feeling away but it turned out the more water he gurgled, the more his mouth foamed. It took nearly fifteen minutes to finally rid his mouth of all the after effects. Stomping back down the corridor, Kaito confronted his father again. "Well 'tou-san? Should I tell on you to 'kaa-san then? I can claim it's Child Abuse."_

" _Your mother was the one who taught me this method." He motioned Kaito to sit back down, this time at the seat in front of the desk. Kaito did so obediently and slumped into the rather cushiony seat. "And she had something nastier tasting than a piece of organic and completely edible soap. At least it doesn't taste funny or anything, just leaves you foaming in the mouth."_

" _When the teacher say I should wash my mouth with soap, I'm sure this was not what she had in mind…" Kaito muttered, remembering the small incident a few days ago when both his parents had been called to a meeting. It was a small incident and he was just copying one of the people who came by to visit Aoko next door and he happened to overhear._

" _What was that Kaito?" His father smiled eerily as though daring Kaito to repeat it._

" _Nothing 'tou-san…" Kaito hesitantly glanced over at the two innocently looking boxes. His father's eyes followed with a small grin on his face. His father must have read his mind, or that he must be having the same thought as Kaito for the grin looked quite demonic._

" _Let's try again shall we?" His father tipped the two boxes into a nearby top hat before shaking it about. "We'll each take a piece from the hat and eat it. Then we guess whether the other one is eating chocolate or not. Now, there are other edible things inside…"_

" _Please don't tell me...it's...there's..." Kaito shivered and wondered if his father was mean enough to do the unthinkable._

" _Not really, nothing fleshy. Though the smell might remind you of them." There was a hint of compassion in his voice but Kaito knew his father was quite amused on the inside. "Sooner or later, this skill will come in handy."_

" _What? Eating soap and other unmentionable substances?" Kaito eyed the top hat set in between them. It would be a game and Kaito should treat it as such. But at the same time, it felt like a test. In either cases, Kaito did not wish to lose to his father. Kaito drew a silver wrapped square from the dark depths of the hat._

" _It's method acting, you learn about the object, or the character you want to impersonate, and using your experience trying to re-enact it. A useful skill for a performer." His father smiled and took a piece from the same hat without hesitation. The each unwrapped the foil, showing the exact same square of brown before popping it into their mouths. Kaito knew it was not chocolate the moment it touched his mouth. It tasted of nothing but still had that strange texture. If Kaito were to guess, he must have picked another piece of soap._

 _However, this time Kaito did not want his father to have the satisfaction seeing him running to the bathroom again. Instead he drudged up all his acting skills learnt so far and pretended he was eating anything but the soap. He saw his father actually enjoying what he ate and Kaito knew, with the amount of luck his father having, that he must have drawn a piece of chocolate. His father grinned and told Kaito to step up his game if he was going to continually give himself away with his acting._

" _You're enjoying this aren't you 'tou-san?" Kaito narrowed his eyes into a glare, having lost the first round. Not wanting to give up, Kaito picked another piece from the hat._

" _I always enjoy spending time with you." His father subsequently picked out another piece. They each unwrapped it again and popped it in his mouth. Kaito nearly scrunched up his brow when he felt, yet again, that slimy feeling on his tongue. He wondered where his luck had gone. It was no surprise that Kaito lost again when his father flicked at him between the brows to stop his frowning._

" _Third time's the charm 'tou-san." Kaito declared, picking out the third piece. He was determined not to fail this time._

" _I don't know Kaito." There was amusement in his voice as he picked out another square. "Tell you what, if you want I can swap you mine."_

" _No way! You probably have something nasty there!" Kaito hogged his own piece. His father had definitely picked something bad and Kaito was not going to trade. It would serve him right._

 _Opening the wrapper, Kaito glared at the brown square and dared it to be something else other than chocolate. After a silent count of three, they both placed it in their mouths and Kaito once again picked the shorter straw. His father, however, looked to be enjoying his piece._

" _Kaito, you really have to work on your Poker Face as well." He commented, licking the lips at the same time. Kaito felt like he really should have traded when his father offered. Perhaps his father had been taking a pity on him._

" _What? You try eating three pieces of soap in a row." Kaito immediately spit his out now that his father had guess he was bluffing._

" _Oh but I did. Only you didn't call me out on it."_

 _Their game was interrupted when their mother knocked on the study door. One look at the table and his mother grabbed his father by the ear and began to drag him out of the room. All the while, she was scolding him on what was edible food and what was not as well as how this could potentially ruin any appetite for lunch and therefore ruining her hard work. Kaito sniggered even though he lost the game, knowing full well his father was paying the price for this little lesson._

Kaito smiled cryptically and instead of telling the full story, he only left them with a sentence of "It reminded me of my childhood." His students groaned at the same time as the bell rang signalling the end of class. They shuffled about, legs dragging as they exited the room.

Kaito smiled and waved as his students waved back, some more enthusiastically than others. By their reactions, many of them will return next week. That would be when Kaito actually starts the lesson. Today was more like testing his students and whether they have the will to continue on this acting path. After all, a performer must persevere on this arduous road if they wanted to achieve fame of any sort.

Rummaging through his own jacket pocket, he produced a silver foil wrapped square. This time, Kaito unwrapped it like a normal person before placing the chocolate, and Kaito had to double check that it was indeed chocolate, into his mouth. He savoured the taste as he cleaned up the classroom. However, he stopped mid action as his mind remembered something.

"Did I tell them not to gurgle when cleaning their mouths?" Kaito stared at the doorway before shrugging. "Oh well, at least whenever their parents mention they'll wash their mouths with soap, they'll always think back to this moment…" Kaito chuckled as he switched off the lights to the room. "That should teach them not to say anything bad."

 **-END-**


End file.
